The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1887-07-21
PENITENTIARY ATROCITIES.
Report of the Kinds County Grand
Jury.
Horrible Crueltlss Committed UP.
on the State Prisoners.

>lOu w CtINNu way > W. VIZ O'"''
jury OF the First District at
Kinds county for this 1.-THE June)
term of this court, having completed
our lahors, beg TO submit our final
report
We have examined 800 witnesses
and have found and returned into
court IS true bills, of which 6 have
been for murder, 3 grand larceny
and the remainder for minor often
ses. We find, with the exception of
murder, there is very little crime in
this district; hut we are compelled
to deplore the fact that homicide
seems to be on the increase. We
feel we have discharged our duty
towards the suppression of this
crime as best we were able, leaving
the court to carry on the work.
We have examined the public
Offices, accounts and settlements
and tiud everything in good shape.
We have examined the Jail and the
bedding and covering of the prison
ers is insufficient and in bad condi-
ton. We recommend that proper
and clean bedding be furnished the
prisoners, and that the roof be
repaired or replaced by new one.
We felt it our duty to inspect the
Penitentiary, and we report the
result of our inspection as follows:
We find comparatively few prison
ers in the walls Of the Penitentiary,
most of them being out on the Gulf
IL Ship Island Railroad and else
where. We found nothing to com
plain of in the walls. The yard
seemed to be clean and the building,
so far as we could judge, in a safe
and clearly condition, and those
Immediately in charge polite and
accommodating in showing us
around. But we feel constrained by
sense of public duty to call atten-
ton to the hospital there, the man
ner in which it is kept, and the
condition of its occupants. We
found twenty six inmates, all of
whom have been lately brought
there off the farms and railroads,
many of them with consumption
and other incurable diseases, and
all bearing on their person marks
OF the most inhuman and brutal
treatment. Most of them have
their backs cut in great wales,
scars and blisters; some with the
skin peelIng OFT in pieces, the result
of severe beating. Their feet and
hands in some instances show signs
of frost bite, and all of them with
the stamp of manhood almost blot,
ted out of their faces, which show
that they have been treated more
cruelty and brutally than nation OF
savages ought to permit inflicted up
on it's convicts. They are lying dying,
some of them on bare boards, SO
poor and cmanciated that their
bones almost come through their
skin; many complaining tor the
want of food. We believe they are
fed Improperly. Sick people ought
to have light diet, and these poor
creatures get their beef and water
aud meal for soup as we are inform
ed, with coarse meat and cabbage
such diet as they cannot eat. One
poor fellow burst out crying and
said he WAS literally starving to
death. We actually saw live YER
min crawling over their faces, and
the little bedding and clothing they
have is in tatters and stiff with
filth.
We call the attention of the Board
Of Control to these matters, but under
the law we know they can do little to
remedy these evils. We belive they
will do the best they can.
We are not to be understood as
condcmning the lcssees in person for
these things, but we do inveigh
against the principle and of this
great State taking poor creatures
liberty and turning him over to one
whose interest it is to coin his blood
into money. As fair sample OF
this system, on the 18th of January,
1887, 2O4 convicts were leased TO
Mcdonald up to June 9th, 1887, and
during this six months 90 died, 19
were discharged and escaped and %
returned to the walls disabled
and sick many of whom have since
died.
God will never smile upon a State
that treats its cOnvicts as Misss-
sippi does.
A fter full examination and con
ference with the kind hearted prison
physician, DR.. Johnson, we find the
following persons in the hospital al,
most in a dying state, some of them
with hopelessly incurable diseases
and others badly afflicted, and all of
them confined for minor otfenses
comparatively speaking, and who
have long since suffered the penalty
of the law in being beaten and so
cruelty mistreated, and whom we
here earnestly beg the Governor to
pardon Immediately, so that they
may at least die free, to-wlt
| Anderson Perkins, colored, con
sumption; George Lowry, white,
chronic lung disease, extreme de,
bility, sentenced for grand larceny,
says he has been in the penltentiary
three years; Monroe Lusk, colored,
carious liberated bones of foot,
sentenced for FORGERY. saws no has